Desiderata
by Dualism
Summary: Once upon a time, a little boy became a knight. RikuSora.


**Disclaimer:** one day i will be able to fully explain the extent to which this series is not mine.  
**Author's Notes: **mildly revised, mostly for grammar.  
**Dedication:** for Red.****

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**one.**

The night is cold.

The Heartless seem to have given them a temporary respite. For three hours now, no black shadows have risen from the brittle dirt beneath their feet, filthy and acrid and ready to twine short black limbs around the bodies of his soldiers. It's quiet, peaceful, and Riku is so alone.

It's been ten years since the beginning of this endless war, ten years since the first of these monstrosities spewed forth from whichever demonic dimension they were made. Ten years, four months, two days. Riku knows because every night little Selphie makes a mark on her wall, shavings mixed with tears. The stone's half crevice now.

Half his men are lost. The Heartless keep getting bigger. The small black humanoid ones are now leviathans, oozing puss and filth, their stench omnipresent and vile, carried along the slightest breezes. The King's gone missing. They say he's gone looking for the savior.

_Savior, _the men whisper. _Legendary, beautiful, he will deliver us from this hell._

Riku doesn't believe in any savior. He just wants the Heartless gone.

Cid's trying to find their source. He thinks he's close to a breakthrough. Sometimes, in sleep, Riku hears him say a name. He doesn't want to think about who the woman on his lips might be. It's a beautiful name, though, Sherra.

It's been three hours since the last of the latest wave fell to their swords and staffs. The men have retreated into the castle, spouses and family and friends. The blacksmiths are forging their swords. Merlin's renewing the wards on their haven.

Riku stands on the cliff, darkness enveloping him, ice wind whipping his hair, frost building on his eyebrows. He is so alone.

**two.**

Kairi's safe. Riku almost falls to his knees from the relief of it.

They almost tore her away. If Leon hadn't shouted, if Aerith hadn't screamed. Kairi is alive, wounded but well, and acidic blood crusts their sword. God, thank you, thank you.

She is his last link to humanity, his beautiful pseudo-sister. She is all that keeps him alive. He gnaws his lips to shreds with the force with which he holds this information in. She knows anyway.

She would have died.

_No, I wouldn't have,_ she says. _You need me. He needs me._

_Riku,_ she says. _He's coming._

**three.**

_Once upon a time, in a far away land, a little boy became a knight._

_He was bold, brash, as most heroes are. His eyes were like the sky, and his heart was a bird's. Free and wise, he defeated witches and wizards, traveled worlds, and saved the universe, with the help of his two most trusted friends. A boy, a talking wolf, a magical hawk. Together, they rescued princesses, conquered countless enemies, made the world safe for everyone._

_He was such a brave little boy._

_At the end of their travels, all three disappeared. Some say they retreated to a small countryside cottage and spent their days happy and content, in solitude. Others say they continued with their adventures; it's just that the written histories have been lost with the passage of time._

_But some people say that they were locked away in a magical chamber by a kind, wise witch at their own request, awaiting the day they might one day again be needed. If the need is ever great enough, if the world ever in enough peril, they will rise, and they will fight. Oh, it'll be grand! Can you imagine?_

_Such a beautiful little boy. Eyes like the sky, they say. As blue as yours are green._

_Yes?_

_His name, you ask?_

_Oh, Riku, darling. No one knows his name!_

_But some of us think it might be Sky._

**four.**

Riku stands on the cliff. Around him, mutilated corpses - men, beasts, no one can tell the difference anymore - lay scattered, filling the air with putrid evil.

He is so alone.

Dear God, he wants the King to come back. He wants his men to stop whispering. He wants Kairi to stop believing.

There is no savior, there is only science and magic and war and blood, blood everywhere, black and wrong and high enough to wade in. There is only Leon with his gunblade and Cloud with his Buster sword and Aerith with her spells. There is only Cid with his ships and Merlin with his staff and Yuffie with her shuriken. Only Kairi and Selphie and Wakka and Tidus.

There are only soldiers, real and dying. His knights are dying, but they are all that exist.

The sky is black above them. The clouds are green, and the rain burns. He is so alone.

There is no savior. The King is a fool for chasing dreams that won't come true.

**five.**

_Riku, he's coming. I spoke to him in a dream._

_He wants to see you. Oh, he wants to see you so badly._

**six. **

One day, they lose communication with Belle.

Aerith locks herself away in her room and prays for their safety. Leon and Cloud disappear for hours, and when they return they are soaked in black, blood burning patches in their clothing. Cid sits with his face pressed against a computer screen, lines of text and numbers playing kiss-and-chase across the monitor, so quickly Riku can't read it. The children cry.

Kairi sits at her window and stares out. Her eyes are wide and dazed, empty pools of blue and violet.

_Starts with an 'S,'_ she whispers.

**seven.**

The lines fall between Hollow Bastion and Agrabah, next. Selphie was speaking with Jasmine when it happened. Reports, status updates. _Iago's been acting strangely. He says the wind's changed. Aladdin and Genie are—_a pause. _Aladdin? Wait, what's wrong? Aladdin, what's—_

Then static, screeching into the silence as Selphie stares at a suddenly blank screen, Jasmine's frightened face the last thing she sees. It takes a long time before she calms down enough to relay any useful information. Longer before she stops screaming.

Kairi hasn't moved in two days.

**eight.**

Halloween Town. The Pridelands. Land of Dragons. Deep Jungle. Olympus Coliseum. Timeless River. Space Paranoids. Atlantica. Neverland. Port Royal. Monstro. Wonderland. Hundred Acre Wood.

No one answers. There is only silence.

All he sees is blood.

**nine.**

Five days. Riku thinks he can see Kairi's bones whittling away, the marrow thinning, the little fat she possesses dissolving into nothing.

_There's no one coming!_ he shouts at her prone form. _Stop it! Stop believing! You're going to end up dead, and then where will we be? Kairi, Kairi, look at me! Wake up, damn you, damn you!_

_C'mon, baby girl. You can wake up, I know you can! Just try! Your heart's still beating, you're still breathing. Come on, love, my beautiful little sister. Just wake up for me._

_Fuck you! Fuck you, I hate you! Wake up!_

A crack of fingers against cheek. Kairi does not stir. _He's not coming! Wake up!_

_Kairi. Please. I need you. You're all I have left._

_I'm not strong enough to do this by myself._

_Please._

_I'm so alone._

Kairi opens her eyes. Riku's heart stops in his chest.

_Oh, Riku,_ she says. _Sora wants to see you so much._

**ten.**

War.

A Heartless throng rushes him, snarling, eyes wide, bestial. No sentience in them. How can beings so mindless have come so far in destroying the universe?

He steps to the side, spins, slams his sword into the back of one of the dangerous ones. The dog ones. It keens, wails, but slumps anyway. Dead in seconds. Another from the right. He dances away, thrusts his sword through its mouth. From the sky. He shreds its wings to pieces, flings its broken body away from himself.

There is no savior. There is only the sword and the filth he has made it his life's goal to destroy. He needs no savior. Is he not enough?

He laughs, loud and long. Around him, demons die, die.

Sora can stay in his cave. What use do they have of him? The monsters will come anyway, and nothing a mythical hero can do will change anything. They are doomed.

_Sora,_ he screams. His mind is a swirling, chaotic void. _We don't need you._

Lightning crashes, the wind howls.

A hundred feet away, Kairi falls.

**eleven.**

She won't wake up.

Her body is a broken, bloody mess. Her heart trembles, bird-quick, in her slender chest. She won't wake up. No one knows what to do.

_Kairi,_ he whispers. He kneels at her side and takes her hands between his. _You'll live. I know you will, because there is no other option. You have no other choice. You will live. You're not allowed to die. It's just impossible._

_You can't leave me by myself._

She won't wake up.

Riku wants to destroy the world.

**twelve.**

The earth is burning around him. All is darkness and death.

**thirteen.**

Once upon a time, Riku and Kairi visited Peter Pan and the Lost Boys in Neverland. It had been a bad day. Captain Hook had surpassed himself. Tinker Bell lay dying, poisoned. Her breath came in tiny, labored gasps. Peter lifted his head slowly, gaze only half-focused. His eyes were turned inwards, at some unknown, unseen audience. And then he spoke.

_She says...she says she thinks she could get well again if children believed in fairies._

_Do you believe in fairies?_

_Say quick that you believe!_

_If you believe, clap your hands!_

And Kairi, beautiful, kind Kairi, his sister in all but blood, put her hands together and _clapped._

**fourteen.**

So this is what Riku does:

He stumbles onto the battlefield, tripping over himself, weaving unsteadily. His sword moves without his knowledge, impaling, beheading, soaking himself with hot, burning blood. Behind him, his soldiers scream at him. Beg him. _Don't do it, my liege. Prince, Lord, Riku. Come back._

_Riku you fucker get back here._

_Kairi will wake up, she wouldn't want this._

_Riku, please._

He sways on his feet, eyes intent on the sky, sword moving in patterns he doesn't recognize. The world goes to hell around him, demons fall around him, and he does not look away. And finally, finally, he drops to his knees and wordlessly gives away his heart.

_Sora,_ he screams.

The world is bleeding, the sky crying.

_Sora._

_Save me._

From the sky, a ship descends.

It's everything and nothing like the one Cid pilots. Colorful, bright, made with huge blocks, and speeding towards him so fast Riku can scarcely track it. It halts suddenly, and a hatch opens. From it, three figures fall. One is small, white and blue, with a huge yellow beak and a magician's cap. The other's larger, black and yellow and green, buck teeth and a knight's shield.

The third, though...oh, the third, the third.

A boy tumbles from the sky, spins in mid air, and lands directly in the middle of battle. His sword is a key, and he wreaks destruction upon the Heartless like it was what he was born to do. Flesh flays from evil, mutated bodies, and the boy laughs, calls over his shoulders to his two companions. Riku can see them now. They're a duck and a dog.

Riku stands there, sword at his side while demons die before him. He has never seen massacre such as this. He has never seen wonder such as this.

The world fades away, until all he sees are laughing lips and wild hair and eyes deeper than the sky.

Lightning falls. Heartless are bowled over as a mage and a knight save a world.

And Sora walks forward, wearing clothes Riku's never seen the like of, and a smile so beautiful his heart stops. Thin strands of brown hair dance in the wind. Sunlight, wonderful, glorious sunlight filters from quickly fading black clouds.

_Savior,_ Riku whispers. He falls to his knees and stares openly up at the cheerful face of the boy who has, with the help of only two others, defeated what must be a thousand heartless in the space of minutes. _You're him. You're Sora._

And Sora, _Sora_ - he laughs. It sounds the bells in Notre Dame.

_Oh, Riku,_ he chuckles. _I've been waiting forever to see you!_

Riku's voice catches in his throat, strangling him. _I know,_ he gasps. _I know._

**fifteen.**

Kairi wakes slowly, eyelids fluttering, fingers spasming. If Riku cries, he'll never remember it later.

Her first words are_ I told you so,_ and Riku thinks he's never loved her more.

Her second words are _It's been a long time, Sora. _

Sora responds with _**Centuries**__, Kairi! I can't believe you still remember! I think Riku's forgotten all about me!_

_Yes,_ she answers. Her smile is warm. _Naminé helped, but Riku never had an Other. But it's okay. We have years. Our entire lives. He'll remember again. Just give him time. _A smile._ There's nothing stronger than love, after all._

And Sora _laughs. _

_No,_ he says, and when he turns to Riku it's with a grin in his eyes and a smile on his face and the sky clears and the black clouds turn white and the first birdsongs in a decade whistle through the air, lovely and pure.

_No, _he says. _There isn't._

**epilogue.**

_Once upon a time, a monstrous army appeared from a black, cold dimension. They ravaged the world, destroyed planets. Countless horrors, every day for ten years. We all lost hope._

_But in our darkest hour, the strongest of our world made himself weak, and made one final plea for salvation. The most proud prostrated himself before the sky and cried for help. He had so much to lose. He was so alone_

_And the sky opened up, and the hero of worlds descended from up on high._

**end.**

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Just keep your eyes / Upon the skies / Ev'ry night a star is- / Right in sight a star is- / Burning bright a star is born.  
- Disney's _Hercules_

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.  
- Max Ehrmann; _Desiderata_

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**End Notes: **For the record—and because I couldn't find anywhere to fit it into the fic—Belle and Jasmine and Aladdin and the rest aren't dead. Sora saved them first, but with the saving came a loss of communication as the roads between worlds were closed. I couldn't figure out where to say it and keep the flow, but that's what happened. The Disney guys can't die that easily!


End file.
